My Daddy Was a Pistol and I'm a Son of a Gun

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Summary: Grizzard remembers his father.
Review: Lewis Grizzard writes about his memories of his daddy in this sometimes sad, sometimes hilarious book. This is what got me started reading Grizzard's books, and made me a loyal fan. You can't help but like it.

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Summary: How to handle the grief of losing your father.
Review: With this work Grizzard departs from his usual mileu of homespun humor and examines the special relationship between fathers and sons. In doing so, the author takes the reader on a bittersweet trip through his father's life to include his military experiences during the Korean War, return to the United States as a combat hero, declining success in the business world, divorce, and finally his early death brought about by alcoholism. The story operates on two levels first by examining Grizzard's relationship with his father and, of greater importance to the reader, in unraveling the intricate interaction between all fathers and sons. On this second level, the work reveals that sons see their fathers as heros regardless of their circumstances. The author makes his best point in the early pages of the work in a discussion of, of all things, the various degrees of intoxication. First there are belligerent drunks, followed by rowdy drunks, followed by the "crank up the Enola Gay" drunks. In describing the most inebrieated level, Grizzard coins the phrase "crying about your daddy drunk", a point at which pent up emotions surge from that special place in the male psyche where men hide their most painful wounds. Any man who has lost a father can relate to this final level. I would recommend this work to two groups of readers--men who have suffered through the death of a father as well as those who wish to understand the depression and post traumatic shock of combat. Grizzard provides more insight to these readers than the best researched psychology book on the shelf. A powerful work with an eternal message, it is a shame that this work is no longer in print.